But even that didn’t inspire basic decency and good sportsmanship in the United Arab Emirates. On Thursday, when Tal Flicker of Herzliya won a gold medal at the judo tournament in the UAE capital, he was forced to stand under the flag of the International Judo Federation, rather than that of the Jewish State.

At #JudoAbuDhabi2017 an Israeli won a gold medal and our national anthem was not played nor our flag displayed. It’s an outrage. Shameful.

After Flicker won the top prize, the judoka was unable to hear Israel’s national anthem, which was not played, nor was the flag of the Jewish flag raised as were others. Instead, the “national anthem” of the International Judo Federation was played in the hall. Flicker sang Hatikva silently from his place anyway. Ditto for Gili Cohen when she was presented with her bronze medal.

Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.